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Go to the NZFungi website for more indepth information on Russula tapawera. Russula tapawera

Synonyms

Macowanites tapawera

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Endemic

Images (click to enlarge)

 

Caption: Trappe 12615
Owner: R.E. Beever

Caption: Fig. 3 H, Macowanites tapawera; Scale bar = 10 mm.

Caption: Fig. 16 Macowanites tapawera. A, Basidioma; B, peridiopellis andperidial context; C, hymenophoral trama and hymenium; D, basidia; E, peridial c

Caption: Fig. 17 Spores of Macowanites tapawera. Scale bars = 10 mm.

Caption: Dried type specimen
Owner: Herb PDD
 

Article: Lebel, T. (2002). Sequestrate Russulales of New Zealand: Gymnomyces and Macowanites. New Zealand Journal of Botany 40(3): 489-509 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Description: Basidiomata 3-9(15) x 5-13(27) mm, subglobose to irregular, indented slightly at central base. Peridial surface dry, smooth or radially furrowed at base, white to pale olivaceous, bruising pale purple-brown to black on some specimens. Gleba white to ivory in youth, in age developing brown areas, loculate, chambers small, compressed. Stipe absent or rarely present, 1-3 x 1-2 mm, white, solid, enclosed by gleba. Columella 0.5-3 mm wide, percurrent or not, present in most basidiomata, sordid white. Odour not distinctive; taste mild. Latex absent. Peridiopellis 30-64 µm wide, a trichodermium of septate, inflated hyphae 4-11 µm diam., appearing as irregularly shaped cells, with terminal cells a dense to patchy turf of upright to repent, elongated clavate or cylindrical, cystidia 35-53 x 5-9.5 µm, with granular contents refractive in KOH. Peridial context 35-80 µm wide, of short, interwoven, ± parallel,hyaline hyphae, 1.5-3.5 µm diam.; sphaerocysts absent. Endocystidia and laticiferous hyphae absent. Stipitipellis when present 7-13 µm wide, a cutis of hyphae 2-4 µm diam. Stipe context of interwoven, hyaline hyphae 2-4 µm diam. Hymenophoral trama 16-28 µm wide, of interwoven, hyaline hyphae 1-3 µm diam., sphaerocysts absent. Subhymenium 9-17 µm wide, cellular-ramose, with 1-3 tiers of ±isodiametric cells 4-13 x 4-10 µm. Basidia 25-35x 10-12 µm, broadly clavate to clavate, hyaline, with 4 slightly incurved sterigmata 5-7 µm long. Cystidia 39-60 x 8-11 µm, clavate to cylindrical or fusoid, with obtuse to shortly rostrate apices and granular contents, refractive in KOH; especially abundant in immature basidiomata, arising in subhymenium, protruding beyond basidia. Spores 10-12(14) x 9-10.5(14) µm (10.78 ± 0.68 x 9.6 ± 0.58), Q = 1.1-1.16, subglobose to ellipsoid, orthotropic. Ornamentation amyloid, of isolated warts and lowridges of warts, connected into short branching lines, 0.5-0.8 µm high, sometimes in a partial reticulum; some spores with only the apices of warts and ridges amyloid. Hilar appendix small, 1-2 x 1 µm, central, hyaline, inconspicuous; plage absent. Spore colour in mass cream colour.
Habitat: HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION: Hypogeous in small groups under leaf litter in Nothofagus forest orLeptospermum scoparium thickets. Fruiting period: Sep.
Notes: ETYMOLOGY: Specific epithet refers to the collection location of the holotype, Tapawera Rd.
NOTES: Macowanites tapawera is one of the few species of sequestrate Russulales from Australia or New Zealand with an olivaceous tint to the peridium and in which the peridium bruises purple-brown to black in some specimens. As such it differs significantly from other New Zealand species, which range in peridial colour from white to brown or red. Macowanites tapawera is the only species with clavate peridial cystidia (35-55 µm long); the peridiopellii of other New Zealand taxa are comprised of fusoid or ventricose cystidia (10-25 µm long) or of hyphal tips. The only other New Zealand species with low, partially reticulate spore ornamentation, Gymnomyces parvisaxoides, may be differentiated from M. tapawera by the white peridium with pale yellow or orange-brown patches and lack of clavate peridial cystidia and large hymenial cystidia.